By MARK MOLINA | The Brownsville Herald
The number was 262.
That’s how many days the Hanna Golden Eagles waited to return to the football field Monday after falling to Edinburg Vela 34-32 thanks to a 54-yard field goal with 24 seconds left in last season’s bi-district playoff.
It left a bad taste in the mouths of the Hanna players and coaches, but head coach Mark Guess is just glad to be back out on the field and moving forward.
“After that playoff loss, we’ve been looking forward to this,” he said. “It’s not as bad as it was back then, but we don’t forget what it tasted like.”
Senior free safety Andres Sustaeta said the wait was a rough one, but displayed a confident demeanor during practice and is expecting a lot of progress to be made during the first days back.
“(The loss) was harsh, but we were ready to go back in and get ready for this season,” he said. “We have a lot of good progress going on and we have a lot of returning players coming back. We’re going through drills, different types of coverage, cleaning stuff up and making sure we’re at 100 percent. We have the fire; we’re ready.”
The Golden Eagles did boast a 7-4 record and made the playoffs for the first time since 2009 in 2017.
For other returning upperclassmen, Monday was the first step in trying to get in the right mindset while improving themselves and the team.
“I want our group to get everything down and get our confidence back because starting a new season is nerve wracking,” said senior running back Cesar Mancias. “It’s senior year and I’m ready to do my best and play my heart out. I’m just hungry to come out and do my best. I push myself every season to get better than the last.
“It’s a great feeling to back with everyone on the team; I missed it.”
The Golden Eagles saw more than 90 players ranging from the freshmen to varsity teams throw on the helmets as they ran numerous drills to kick off the first week, which usually is meant for conditioning.
Guess was pleased to see a large portion of that number report to practice in good shape after solid attendance during summer workouts.
However, there is nothing that can quite emulate the stress of football.
“We can work as much as we want to in the summertime, but in the end, once you get on the field and start going through all the football stuff, then it changes,” Guess said. “It’ll still be tiring come that first day.”
Guess is starting his third season with the team and is now starting to find consistency within the program.
Unlike the two seasons before, there won’t be as much introduction to the system, just reviews.
That goes a long way for the Hanna coach.
“After (conditioning) we just get in to practice and just try to retain the information they have to know,” Guess said. “This is going to be the first year in a while that these kids have the first offensive system and the same defensive system all the way through. With as many kids as we have coming back, we hope to get even more extensive in our offensive schemes.”